“Despite challenging market conditions, we are well placed as a business with a clear vision and investment strategy, great partners and a strong balance sheet.”

The Crown Estate’s urban portfolio, which includes large parts of London’s West End, brought in a total return of 10.6% on assets that are now worth £5.9bn.

Outside of London, the Crown Estate owns 15 retail parks in various towns and cities, including Liverpool, Swansea, Slough and Nottingham.

It also owns shopping centres in Worcester, Oxford and Exeter as well as offices in Birmingham, Manchester and Cambridge.

Its properties outside London are now worth £1.6bn.

The value of the Crown Estate’s energy and infrastructure portfolio rose by 8.2% in 2012/13, reaching £564 million, and delivered a total return of 10.6%.

Alternative energy

Because it owns and manages the seabed around the UK out to the 12-mile limit, the Crown Estate is heavily involved in offshore wind farms, where it saw an extra 1GW of power come on stream, with around 300 new turbines erected offshore.

The Crown Estate also made £13.1m from cables and pipelines that cross its land.

As part of its overall property portfolio, it also owns the foreshore of almost half of the UK’s coastline, although much of it is leased out to third parties.

It holds around 144,000 hectares (356,000 acres) of the country’s agricultural land and forests, as well as residential and commercial property outside urban areas.